Tackling science one quiz at a time

While studying can mean hours spent in the library, it doesn’t have to be so boring! Mina Reeve has designed an app that makes studying both easier and fun for students

Seth Onyango @SethManex

Education has never been more accessible and fun; thanks to the plethora of learning apps that demystify tough subjects such as mathematics and science.

Students are now able to learn on the go and no longer have to sift through loads of notes to find what they are looking to review.

One teacher has figured out how to integrate science lessons into the smartphone classroom, tackling it one quiz at a time. Mina Reeve, 26, a sports, exercise and health sciences teacher, is the latest developer to make a foray into the expanding ecosystem of educational apps.

With her Sports Science Quiz app, Reeve is lighting a candle of science even in the darkest minds of students. While the drive for most developers is to monetise apps, hers is driven by the desire to help students grasp the finer concepts of science amid the laissez faire attitude towards the subject.

According to Reeve, use of technology is a critically important tool in helping students develop a deeper understanding of science.

In a country where science can be an intimidating subject for students, she quips that with the right science teaching strategies, educators can engage students in the subject matter and help them to better understand complicated concepts.

Reeve, is a Biomedical Scientist with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom and also boasts a Master’s in Education from the University of Nottingham.

She is also a fitness junkie and a shrewd entrepreneur having founded Nami Africa Group, a public relations agency. Reeve, who has been a teacher for three years, realised there was an opportunity to develop an app that can help students revise, and she grabbed it.

“My students inspired me to create an app that catered for their immediate needs, which were to revise certain topics in a fun and thrilling way.

They wanted an experience whereby they were learning while having fun and maintaining healthy competition with their friends,” she narrates.

Despite venturing into the business and entrepreneurial world, it is her biomedical background that made her develop a strong bias for anything science.

“Owing to my personality, I knew teaching was the perfect way to marry all of my passions, which include giving children a good education. I took the initiative to enroll into a post graduate course that would propel me into a career I find highly rewarding,” she adds.

It is this passion that has seen her volunteer at a school in her home town, Kitui West county whenever she gets a chance, especially with sciences and sports.

But it is as a teacher at The Braeburn Group of International Schools, that she recognised that learning is an emotional as well as an intellectual experience.

“The Sports Science Quiz app is what, therefore, marries the two. It has both the intellectual and fun component to it,” she argues. She says the app is tailor-made to complement the curriculum in Sports, Exercise and Science.

It is in the form of multiple choice questions hence it complements some of the papers that you are asked to do at both the high school and university level since one will always have a multiple choice component.

The idea of her app is to help students taking sports science or related fields such as anatomy, biology and even biomechanics revise, test their knowledge and get exam technique at the same time.

But developing the app was not an easy ride, having scouted for local developers who proved too expensive, she sought help from her friends in the UK who agreed to develop it for Sh300,000. “I would encourage app developers and subject specialists to design a similar app but for other topics,” she said.